Well, I own quite a bit of stock myself (mostly in mutual funds), so I probably should take offense at your characterizing me as a "parasite". :-D

Don't fool yourself. You don't own anything. You are gambling a few thousands of dollars at the stock market, that is all. The few thousands of dollars you are gambling are not enough to own anything. The guyz who are in control have billions and they get to decide what the company does. You don't decide anything. You just hope the guy who decides has the same interests as you. That is gambling. More often than not the guys who decide will use your money to screw you along with the rest of the population.
Those guyz don't work. They don't need to. They are not even aware that people work. They don't even screw you directly. They pay people to screw you. They don't even know how the people they pay do screw you.

Well, I can only testify to what I have experienced, and my investment returns have been excellent my entire life, 1982 and 2008 notwithstanding. That's why I'm able to retire young even though I've worked as a simple engineer my entire life.

Besides, corporations actually produce most of the modern conveniences I use, and when one is abusive to me, I simply choose not to use their products.

Governments, on the other hand, produce nothing and force you to "buy" their products. Do you know how rich I'd be if the US Government hadn't forced me at gunpoint to pay over a million into that uber-ponzi scheme called "social security"? If that's your idea of a well-run investment scheme... well, it would explain the "few thousand dollars" comment, at least. :-D

200 or 300 thousands dollars are still a few thousand dollars. 10 million dollars are still a few thousands. It does not make any difference. I think you didn't get what I said. Even with 100 million dollars you are just gambling. The people who invest 30 or 50 billion dollars dictate their rule. They hire and fire the CEO. They tell the corporation to produce something, to make stock or to sell a division. They decide. I don't know how much money you have in stocks but if you have less than $20 billion you don't own anything. Maybe you own a stock or two with a voting right that is meaningless when a single entity owns more than 50%. The people who decide don't take risks. All your investment is based on luck. Good for you if you were lucky until now. I hope for you that this continues.

Government which don't produce anything is what we are talking about. My government does produce things. I'm very happy with that. It's much more useful things than the average junk produced by the average corporation. But "Government" is not the right term. It's the "State". The "Government" is just a very tiny part of that. Your "Government" collects taxes because it does not produce anything.